


Pound It!

by meerturtle, NUMBER1ANGIRL



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akuma Attack, Bad Parent Gabriel Agreste, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Oblivious Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Oblivious Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Protective Nathalie Sancoeur, frustrated plagg and tikki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:54:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25719907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meerturtle/pseuds/meerturtle, https://archiveofourown.org/users/NUMBER1ANGIRL/pseuds/NUMBER1ANGIRL
Summary: Tikki closes her eyes, scrunching her face up in anticipation. It was now or never. “I think they should know each other’s identities!” She admits.When she hears nothing, Tikki allows one eye to flutter open. Plagg is just sitting there, giving her a bored expression. “Okay…”“Really? You have nothing to say about that?” She asks, crossing her arms over her chest.Plagg just shrugs again. Wow, she really hated when he did that. “Finally?”*Or, now that Fu is out of the picture, Tikki and Plagg try to make some things clear to their owners. Unfortunately, they're two of the most oblivious people in Paris.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 17
Kudos: 270





	Pound It!

**Author's Note:**

> ENJOY!

Tikki opens one of her big, blue eyes, peering into her chosen’s face. Marinette’s eyes were closed, and she was breathing deeply. Good.

Trying to be as silent as possible, Tikki starts floating upwards. She moves slowly, making sure that Marinette didn’t suddenly wake up during her escape attempt. 

As soon as she floats through the roof, Tikki lets out a deep breath. Coast is clear. 

“Well, _that_ was dramatic!” A voice drawls, and she glowers at the small figure in Marinette’s lawn chair. 

Tikki rolls her eyes. “I couldn’t wake her up! She’d have questions!” 

Plagg shrugs. “Whatever you say, Sugarcube.” 

Tikki huffs at the nickname. Trying to calm herself down, she takes a few deep breaths. “Anyways, don’t we have something to discuss?”

“Always so formal.” Plagg chides, sitting upwards. “What is it that you wanted to talk about?”

Tikki closes her eyes, scrunching her face up in anticipation. It was now or never. “I think they should know each other’s identities!” She admits.

When she hears nothing, Tikki allows one eye to flutter open. Plagg is just sitting there, giving her a bored expression. “Okay…”

“Really? You have nothing to say about that?” She asks, crossing her arms over her chest. 

Plagg just shrugs again. Wow, she really hated when he did that. “Finally?” 

“Aren’t you gonna, like, oppose? Say that they shouldn’t know because of safety reasons? It’s too dangerous?”

“We both know that you were the one with all of the worries, Sugercube.” Plagg sighs, fully reclining. “I would’ve given up this whole charade a long time ago if I wasn’t worried that you would murder me in my sleep.”

Tikki narrows her eyes. “We’re immortal!”

“You’d find a way! You always find a way.” Plagg mutters, closing his eyes. Tikki resists the urge to strangle him. 

Tikki takes another deep breath. Why did she always find herself doing that around Plagg? “So… we’re really doing this?”

Plagg nods, finally getting off of his chair. “Yup!” He pops the ‘p’. “How are we gonna do it? Write it out on a piece of paper? Carve it into a piece of cheese!” His eyes widen at the prospect.

Tikki shakes her head. “No. We can’t _directly_ tell them. It wouldn’t be right. But…” She trails off, and Plagg tilts his large head at her. “If we just happened to push them in the right direction…”

“Give them hints?” Plagg seems dubious. “I don’t know, Sugarcube. My cat is pretty dense.”

Tikki nods. “Well, so is my bug, but they can’t be _that_ thick! Give a few good shoves in the right direction, and BAM! Romance!” She giggles.

Plagg raises an eyebrow. “You know, it’s more than likely that once they know, those two idiots will be even _more_ difficult to get together, right?”

“Let me enjoy this, _please_!” Tikki pleads, a hand going to her forehead. “I’m tired.”

Plagg places his hand on Tikki’s shoulder. “Alright, Tikki. We’ll go with your plan.”

She smiles. “Okay. Good. So… we’ll start this tomorrow?” 

“Purr-fect!” 

Tikki rolls her eyes. “Dork.” She mumbles. “I’m gonna go to bed now. Get some sleep, Stinky Sock!” 

Plagg salutes in response, and flies away. Tikki feels her shoulders deflate as all of her anxiety melts away.

  
They could do this. They _had_ to do this. It would work. Besides. How dumb could two people _real l_ _y_ be?

*

Marinette had gone to school a bit more than peeved. It seemed as if Tikki had been keeping something from her, but at the same time, was trying not to keep it from her. Marinette had asked her kwami nothing short of a million and one questions about what was bothering her. Tikki, being the morally upstanding kwami that she was, kept her lips sealed about the details, but did mention it was “identity stuff”. Tikki didn’t say much after that, leaving Marinette frustrated and a lot more curious than she previously was. If Tikki was worried about her identity, maybe she should be too.

On her way out of the door that morning, Marinette, stopped in the kitchen to grab a croissant. Tom was busy at work already planning to try new recipes and Sabine was working on preparing her tea just right. Her annoyance was heightened by her parents’ pleasant mood.

“Good morning, my beautiful daughter!” her father chirped, a wide smile on his face.

“Hey,” she replied, face twisted in a scowl. Tom looked to Sabine with concern in his eyes and left the room to give his wife some space to talk to their daughter.

“Marinette,” her mother called out as she moved to block the girl from leaving, “is everything okay, honey?”

“Perfectly fine. Amazing. Never been better,” Marinette quipped, inching to move around her mother. She was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

“Are you sure honey? I know it’s been rough lately with the akumatizations, but if you ever need to-”

“Maman! I can handle myself. You don’t need to butt in all of the time! There are some things you just don’t need to know!” Marinette was a bit surprised at herself, and judging by the movement she could feel in her purse, Tikki was just as shocked. She had never snapped at her mother. Despite the slight guilt she was feeling, Marinette followed through with her outburst and left for school.

Coming back from her thoughts to pay attention to Miss Bustier’s lecture on kindness, her eyes fell on the classmate in front of her. Adrien, she thought to herself. How would he feel if he knew she was Ladybug? Marinette imagined a reality in which Adrien would learn about her secret identity and perhaps love her for it. Nah, he would probably be freaked out. What Marinette didn’t hear was Alya’s voice calling her name and the classroom erupting in chaos.

“Marinette! There’s another akuma attack, we have to go” her best friend shook her shoulders.

Marinette looked around the room and then at Alya’s phone to see what exactly was going on:

“Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news. A new akumatized villain has appeared in Paris and it’s making its way up to François Dupont High School, looking for Marinette Dupain-Chang. The villain is referring to themselves as the Revealer- spilling tea on everyone in her way- causing them to reveal their deepest secret.”

_Maman. This is my fault._ She looked up to Alya and pushed her best friend to the door, searching for somewhere she could escape to. She started this mess and she was going to have to finish it. Marinette made her way to the lockers: a snug fit but far away from the courtyard where everyone else was. Or, almost everyone else.

Adrien had preferred to transform into Chat Noir in more open areas, and luckily for him, the boys bathroom in the locker area wasn’t usually crowded in the middle of the day. Sometimes he could even transform in the middle of the room. Today was different.

As he scrambled towards the door and went to grasp the handle, he felt another hand beat him there. Whipping his head around, he saw that Marinette was also headed to the lockers. There goes my transformation. To Adrien, she looked both shocked and confused to see him going the same way she was. On the inside, her head was all static and her hand was on fire.

“Isn’t Revealer looking for you, Marinette?” Adrien whispered, his head lowered in her direction. Marinette slowly pulled her hand back and nodded silently.

“I may have been a little harsh with my mama this morning, but I didn’t think I hurt her this badly,” she glanced off to the side, a guilty look on her face as she remembered the morning’s events.

“We all make mistakes,” Adrien offered her a small, warm smile and grabbed her hand. “What’s important is that we find somewhere for you to hide.” He pulled her into the locker room and headed straight for the boy’s bathrooms. _Not my best idea but Marinette wouldn’t be caught dead in the boy’s room_.

Marinette blanched at the thought of being in the bathroom alone with Adrien but didn’t have time to process her thoughts before she was being shoved into a stall.

“Okay, I don’t think she’s going to be able to find you here. Just stay put until the coast is clear.”

“But where are you going to hide?” Adrien looked around nervously, virtually speechless until Marinette continued. “...okay maybe you should hide in the girl’s room? I-I mean if you’re comfortable with that! I don’t wanna-“

“It’s a perfect idea. Thanks Marinette,” Adrien flashes her another smile before running out of the bathroom. When Marinette heard the girls bathroom opened, she took a deep breath, slumping her shoulders.

“That was so close, Tikki.” The spotted kwami flew out of her master’s purse to comfort the girl… and maybe drop a hint or two.

“Marinette, don't you think it’s weird that you and Adrien always hide far away from everyone else yet never with each other?” Tikki tried to word her question in the most thought provoking way, hoping Marinette would use that Ladybug brain of hers.

“Well, I always thought Adrien didn’t like hiding with people. He usually is alone when he’s not here, so maybe it’s comfortable for him.”

Tikki let out a resigned sigh. At this rate, they’ll never figure it out. 

*

“Hey, kid, isn’t it funny how Marinette always leaves everyone else to go hide alone but never takes the opportunity to be alone with you?”

“Why would Marinette want to be alone with me? I always thought she hid alone so she wouldn’t get anyone else hurt. She can be kind of clumsy sometimes.”

Plagg looked at Adrien, both concern and frustration clouded his face. If he didn’t even know how Marinette felt, he had a lot more work to do than he thought.

*

By the time Ladybug had caught up to Revealer, she made her way to the school courtyard, terrorizing the students. “Keeping secrets from your parents is no way to live children! How about a cup of tea to relax you? You can tell me everything."

Revealer tipped a large, ornate tea kettle and spilled the tea on every student in François Dupont. All at once, everyone started babbling what seemed to be their deepest secrets.

Alya was confessing to Nino that she still slept with stuffed animals. Markov was telling Max about how he dressed up in his clothes sometimes. Kim was gloating to Alix about being King Monkey. This is an absolute nightmare.

“Students seem to be more excited than usual to see a villain,” a familiar voice appeared behind Ladybug. She turned towards Chat Noir who had his trademark smirk on his face and glint of mischief in his eyes.

“Yeah, they’re too busy spilling their deepest secrets to even realize she’s there.”

“Their what?” Chat Noir’s face dropped at the thought of anyone finding out his secret. Ladybug had made it very clear what would happen if anyone were to find out their identities.

“She spills the tea, they spill the beans,” she points out, the two of them watching Revealer move around the courtyard. “Pretty simple, Kitty.”

*

“You seem way too relaxed right now,” Chat noticed. “Have you had the tea?” he lowered his voice in fake concern.

“Very funny. I’m pretty sure the akuma is in the tea kettle. If we can stay above her, she won’t be able to spill anything on us. Once it’s a clear shot, you cataclysm the kettle, and it’s over. Sounds good?”

“Anything sounds good coming from you, m’lady.” The two took advantage of the courtyard’s support beams and made their way above Revealer’s head. The only issue was that she was keeping the kettle so close to her body. Marinette wasn’t too eager to see what a cataclysm would do to her mom, akumatized or not.

“Lucky charm!” What fell from the sky was her… civilian clothing? “You gotta be kidding me— this is a dead giveaway,” she muttered.

“What was that?” Chat asked, before he saw the clothes in her hands. “Oh! Are you planning on playing tea and dress up? She seems to be very motherly— it could work,” he quips.

Ladybug looks around: herself, her clothes, the courtyard, Revealer, Chat Noir. Of course! She stood up at once, putting on her civilian clothes over her suit. “You know I was joking, right? I don’t think that-“

“It’s her daughter’s clothes. If I dress up like her daughter, she’ll leave everyone to come after me. She’ll move the kettle away from her body to pour it and when I say the word, cataclysm. Got it?”

“Bugaboo, you truly are a genius.”

Ladybug ran down to the floor of the courtyard, tripping purposefully to catch her mother’s attention. “Oh no! I’m so clumsy! How will I get away now?”

Revealer turned to see her daughter helpless on the ground, letting out an evil laugh as she came closer to her target. “Marinette, you should know you can’t hide anything from your mother! Now tell me, what’s been bothering you?” Just as she begins to extend the kettle, Ladybug signals for Chat Noir.

“Cataclysm!” He flies from the scaffolding and grazes the side of the kettle, landing on the floor next to his lady.

Ladybug finishes up the job and the heroes pound it in front of a very confused Sabine.

Both of their jewels flashed, alerting the teens of their imminent transformation. “Think you can—“ they both begin to ask at the same time. Ladybug giggles, and waves her hand. “I got it— you go ahead, Chat Noir.”

With a swift kiss of his lady’s hand and a flirty wink, he was off to the other side of the school. “Let’s get you home, Mrs. Dupain-Cheng.” 

“Okay Tikki, what was that about?” Marinette questioned her kwami the moment they were back in the bathroom.

“What are you talking about?” Tikki feigned innocence.

“The lucky charm— I would never reveal my identity like that!” Marinette insisted, concern written all over her face.

“If Chat Noir finds out who I am, it’s over. I’d have to give my miraculous to the next Ladybug.” She covered her hands with her face.

“Marinette, _you’re_ the guardian now. You can technically make the rules,” Tikki shrugs. “Plus, as the guardian, you should kind of know who Chat Noir is. I don’t know why Master Fu wouldn’t have given you that information”

“Tikki, no. No identities will be revealed. We could slip up and Hawkmoth will find out then we’ll really be in trouble. And he could follow me to the miraculous and steal them-“

“Or, you and Chat Noir would build a great relationship on complete trust and strengthen your bond?” the kwami suggested. Marinette looked at her with a straight face. “Yep, I’ll drop it,” Tikki muttered as she flew back in the purse. 

“So how about that lucky charm, huh?” Plagg wiggled his eyebrows

“What are you talking about, Plagg?” Adrien asked as he dug through his pockets for his kwami’s signature stinky cheese.

“So you’re telling me it wasn’t interesting to see Ladybug dressed up as a civilian? Namely, Marinette? A civilian you happen to know…” Plagg trailed off as Adrien tossed him a slice of camembert.

“I mean, yeah it was pretty strange to see how her pink pants clashed with the Ladybug spot pattern,” Adrien pondered.

Plagg stopped just as he was about to take a bite. “You’ve got to be joking, kid. You don’t think there was something familiar about Ladybug being dressed as Marinette?” the kwami pressed, hoping to see the wheels turn in his master’s head.

“... if you’re suggesting that Marinette is Ladybug, you’re wrong. Marinette is Multimouse,” Adrien recalled proudly.

“Yeah, and you’re Aspik, right?” Plagg reminded him.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He flew up close to Adrien’s face to punctuate his next point. “I’m just saying, the same way you made her think Adrien and Chat Noir weren’t the same..”

“She could be doing the same thing,” Adrien finished. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s Ladybug, either,” he looked up, waving a finger in his kwami’s face before opening his jacket for him to fly into.

“Sure it doesn’t,” Plagg muttered to himself.

Adrien walked out of the bathroom, checking to see if the coast was clear. He had just made it to the door when he heard a thud. He turned around to find Marinette on the floor.

“Marinette, are you alright?” he rushed to help her to her feet, just noticing the blush that spread across her face as he held her hands.

“No— I mean yes! I mean— yeah I’m fine,” she let out a sigh. “I heard Ladybug and Chat Noir saved the day once again.”

“Yeah, even when the villain gets to her, Alya still does a great job covering the akuma fights,” Adrien points out.

Marinette’s eyes widen at his words. “How did you know Alya was affected by the attack?” She questioned, her mind coming to the worst possible conclusion.

Adrien lifted a hand to the back of his head, and looked around, trying to come up with an excuse. “Well she kept talking about random things during her broadcast so I just figured…” Marinette’s face softened at his flustered speech.

“We should probably get back to class before they think we’ve become sugar cubes or something,” she joked. “

Yeah, or worse, forever stuck playing tea and dress up,” he quipped back as he opened the door for Marinette. Why did that sound so familiar?

*

“Okay, class!” Mlle Bustier says as everyone gets back into their seats. “As I was about to say before we were interrupted,” She sighs, her plastered on smile faltering slightly. “We have a new project coming up!” 

Everyone but Max groans. 

“Now, now, you will be working with partners-” A round of cheers. “That I have assigned.” More groans.

“You will have a week to research your given job topic, and then present it in front of the class on Career day.”

Marinette nervously taps her fingers on her desk as Mlle Bustier starts going through the criteria and rubric of the project. She was only half listening, knowing that she would get her own copy of the paper later on. 

As Bustier finishes, looking up at a sea full of glazed eyes, she clears her throat. “Now, I am going to assign your partners. Then, one of the people in your group will come up and pick a job from the hat.” She says, waving a bowler hat towards the crowd. Suddenly, everyone perks up.

“Okay… Alya and Chloe.” That didn’t go over well with either girl, but Bustier couldn’t care less. “Max and Sabrina.” 

She continues listing off strange pairs. Nathaniel and Nino. Alix and Lila. Mylene and Kim. Finally, Marinette hears her name leave her teacher’s lips. “Marinette and Adrien.”

Marinette barely feels Lila’s glare. She barely hears Alya mutter ‘lucky’ under breath. Instead, she’s focused on the pair of green eyes that had turned her way when they were labeled partners.

Ever since Marinette had decided to give up on him, their relationship had been strange. Not that their normal dynamic of her being a clumsy, bumbling idiot wasn’t already strange. But now, Marinette had no idea what they were to each other. And that’s why she felt just as uncomfortable with her pairing as Alya.

*

Thankfully, Marinette had picked fashion out of the hat. It made their uncomfortable situation slightly more bearable. 

For her. Adrien wasn’t exactly thrilled with their topic.

“Okay,” Marinette says, already pulling out her laptop. “We have a week to research, create, and present. So, if we get all of the research done today and tomorrow, that gives us two days to create the presentation, and then two more days to practice presenting. I’ll take the first half of what we need to look at, you get the second half of the list.” She turns to look at Adrien, who was staring blankly at her. “You okay?”

He blinks a few times. “Yeah… I just… never heard you speak for so long without stuttering.”

Marinette blushes. “Sorry.” She mumbles.

“No!” Adrien backtracks, his hands going out in surrender. “No, um… it- it’s cool.” He mumbles, rubbing the back of his neck.

Marinette nods. “Alright, so remember to cite your sources, get all of your information lined up…”

*

“Wow.” Adrien murmurs as he and Plagg walk into his bedroom. “That was weird.”

Plagg hums, taking a bite of his cheese. “What was?”

“Marinette being so in control and in the zone.” Adrien murmurs, a look of awe on his face. “It actually has me thinking…”

Plagg looks up, his eyes wide. Could it finally be sinking in? Was Adrien being slightly less dumb?

“I wanna do something nice for her.” Adrien says, his smile wide. Plagg deflates. Disappointed but not surprised.

Adrien starts pacing his room, before his eyes light up. “I got it!” He exclaims, racing towards his door.

He rushes to find Nathalie, who gives him a small smile before turning back to her computer. “Hello, Adrien.”

Adrien smiles back at her. “Hey, Nathalie! So… me and one of the girls in my class is doing a presentation for Career day. It’s on the fashion industry. Do you think father will be able to make it?”

Nathalie sighs. The real answer was ‘no’, but as soon as she looked into Adrien’s wide, pleading eyes, she just couldn’t let the boy down. “What day is it?”

“Next Friday.”

Nathalie nods, already pulling up Gabriel’s calendar. “I’ll do my best, Adrien.”

The boy smiles at her. “That’s all I can hope for, Nathalie.”

*

Tikki was _so_ done with humans.

Seriously, what was up with them? They can send people to the moon in large, metal containers, but they _can’t_ come to the obvious conclusion that two girls with blue hair pulled into pigtails with red ribbons were the same person? 

She says as much to Plagg, who nods in understanding. “Yup. Their cheese is off the charts, but their brain power is seriously lacking.”

“I literally asked Marinette yesterday if she thought that Adrien would look like Chat in the Chat Noir suit.” Tikki groans, leaning her head against her hand.

Plagg raises an eyebrow. “And what did she say?”

“She went on a whole tirade about how no one could replace Chat, and ‘ _not even Adrien_ would be able to pull that suit off as well as Chat’.” Tikki finishes in her best Marinette impression. “And then promptly denied having any sort of feelings for Chat what-so-ever.” Lifting her head up, she looks imploringly at Plagg. “What about you? You have any luck with Adrien?” 

Plagg gives her a look. “Sugarcube, if you had no luck, why would I? We both know that pigtails is the brains of that operation.”

“Paris is doomed.” Tikki moans.

She was just frustrated. Marinette was most definitely a bright girl. She just lacked all common sense. 

Plagg didn’t have a track record of getting paired with rocket scientists, which is ironic because Adrien apparently had the grads _to be_ a rocket scientist. Tikki was the one that usually got the brainier holders. But, not in all of her millenia of existing have a bug and cat been so oblivious to each other’s identities. 

They saw each other each and every day by _accident_. Tikki once had a holder that saw a portrait of her cat’s secret identity, and immediately figured it out!

“Maybe… it’s just not meant to be right now.” Tikki sighs.

Plagg scrunches up his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

Tikki shrugs. “If they haven’t figured it out now, maybe now isn’t the time for them to learn. We can’t _tell_ them, so maybe we should just let things happen naturally.”

“I hate nature.” Plagg rolls his eyes. “It’s too slow.”

Tikki just smiles. “Well, it’s either that or die of frustration. What would you prefer?”

Plagg nods sadly. “I can’t eat cheese if I’m dead.”

*

Marinette was _officially_ freaking out.

It was the day of the presentation. Career day. And, not only was she going to have to present with her (not-so) former crush, in front of the entirety of her classmates _and_ their parents, but also her fashion idol. No pressure!

It had been during Alya and Chloe’s presentation that a glowering Gabriel Agreste had walked into the room. He was being followed by a stern looking Nathalie, who kept sending him glares whenever he would turn around to face her.

Marinette had almost completely forgotten that he was a parent. Let alone the parent of one of her friends. The man never showed up outside of his house, so she had thought that it was a given that she wouldn’t have to worry about him seeing her presentation.

Apparently not.

The anxiety of going up in the front of her class started to weigh her down. She was a clutz. She could barely talk to the boy she likes, let alone speak about her passion in front of a bunch of people that probably didn’t even like her. 

“Marinette?” A soft voice says, and she turns to look at Adrien. Adrien. The boy that up until recently had her entirely too tongue-tied to even _think_ of what she wanted to say. And now she was supposed to do a presentation with him in front of his successful, fashion designer father. Great.

Ignoring his question, Marinette shakily raises her hand. “Mlle Buster? Can I go to the bathroom?”

The teacher looks at the order of the presentations. Apparently, Marinette wasn’t supposed to go on too soon, because she sends her off with a, “Make it quick, Marinette.”

As soon as Marinette exits the room, she feels all of the anxiety suddenly catch up to her. She presses a hand to her chest, and takes deep breaths. How was she supposed to do this?

“It’s okay, Marinette.” A soft voice from her purse says. “Deep breaths.” Tikki instructs.

Marinette complies and feels her breathing steady. That's when she hears the door open once more. “Marinette?” Another familiar voice asks.

She spins around and sees Adrien standing behind her. _Oh, great._ “Uh… h-hey A-Adrien.” She stutters. 

He takes a step forward, eyebrows scrunched in obvious worry. “Are you okay? What happened?” 

Marinette contemplates just lying. Telling him that everything is fine, and waving him off. Instead, she finds herself spilling all of her thoughts to Adrien. 

“I’m just… I’m so awkward and clumsy! My fashion idol is in that room, and I’m probably gonna trip or stutter. And if I’m awkward, everyone’s gonna make fun of me, and I’m gonna break down in front of everyone, and I’m not gonna have any friends, and-”

“Marinette!” Adrien interrupts her, placing his hands on her shoulders. If she was more aware of her surroundings, she probably would’ve added _that_ to her long list of troubles. “Calm down.”

Marinette looks down in shame, and Adrien just inspects her. “I’m sorry. If… if I’d known it would’ve worried you, I wouldn’t have invited him.”

“No!” Marinette immediately yells. “Your dad _should_ be here for you! I’m the one that’s over thinking everything.”

Adrien couldn’t help tilt his head at her. Despite her clumsy tendencies, he’d never viewed Marinette as anything less than strong. He wished that she could see herself the same way that he did. 

The sound of the door opening disturbs them.

“Mari, Adrien, you’re up next!” Alya whispers, before quickly shutting the door behind her.

Taking a deep breath, Adrien tilts Marinette’s chin up so that they were making eye contact. “Is there… a state of mind that makes you feel… more confident?” He finally asks.

Marinette raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

Adrien lets out a deep breath. “Is there something you could do that makes you feel free. Confident. Able to do anything?” The way he acts as Chat comes to mind. “A way that you can’t act around anyone else because you think they might judge you?”

Marinette bites her lip. Yes. There was, actually. She used it every time she called on her kwami and went out to save Paris.

“Yeah.” Marinette says. “I do.”

Adrien gives her a breathtaking smile. “Then be that person. Pretend that you’re talking to someone that you trust more than anything, that you can be yourself in front of. That should help.” 

Marinette returns his smile, and knocks her shoulder against his. “Thanks, Adrien.” 

Adrien nods, turning to go back to the room. Before he opens the door, however, he turns his head towards her. “And… just so you know, I think you’re gonna do amazing, no matter what.” 

When he leaves, Marinette groans. _Why did he have to be so kind and genuine? At this rate, she was never gonna get over him._

*

Adrien couldn’t help but admire how Marinette waltzed back into the classroom looking like she could take on the world. 

The way she stared down the class with that unwavering determination, reminded him of LB staring down Mr. Pigeon one of the first dozen times.

While they had practiced presenting so many times before, it was nothing like the final product. Marinette spoke briskly, voice full and steady. Adrien added his own flair and charm. It was one of the few times he let his inner Chat out. 

They played off of each other like they had done it hundreds of times before, even though it was the very first time. 

As they started to finish, Adrien could practically imagine that it was the ending of a battle. Like he was talking with Ladybug, and they were going to do a practiced routine.

“And _that_ is everything!” Marinette exclaims to the class. “We are finished.” She says, and barely glances Adrien’s way.

He shouldn’t have done it. He really shouldn’t have. But he was so wrapped up in pattern. His fist went out to the side, and he exclaimed, “Pound it!” 

What he wasn’t expecting was for the girl next to him to do the exact same thing. 

They both still, their fists pressed to one another's. Eyes locked on the offending gesture, but not daring to move up. To see the face that they know is there, but not the one they are expecting.

Slowly, Marinette’s gaze travels from her hand to Adrien Agreste’s face. Her mouth drops open. She sees him do the same thing, and his eyes widen to the size of dinner plates.

Marinette drops her fist, and the hand goes up to her mouth. 

“I- no- wha- no- I-” Adrien stutters.

Neither of them notice the confused glances that everyone else in the room shares. None of them could figure out what was affecting the two teenagers. 

Marinette grabs Adrien by the wrist, and pulls him out of the classroom, the door slamming shut behind them.

“Does this happen often?” Gabriel asks Tom Dupain who was sitting next to him.

Chloe raises an eyebrow. “What’s going on with them?”

Nino, eyebrows furrowed, looks around. “Did anybody else hear the squeaky cursing?”

**Author's Note:**

> So, we decided to write this a while ago. We are @agreste_dupain_ and @plaggsbugaboo on Twitter! 
> 
> Hope you liked it as much as we liked writing it! Thank you! 
> 
> Until next time! <3<3<3


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